Tag Archives: SammartinoYoga Blog
Pranayama Soothes Your Nerves
Breathe sideways…..just a little bit more…..
Pranayama (expansive breathing)—soothes nerves to calm the brain.
Pranayama is breathing in, breathing out and pausing according to space (inside the lungs) time (how long) and number (how many times.)
To practice: simply close your eyes and begin breathing by widening your back ribs. (Most of your breathing muscles are in the back of your body.)
Best to keep your breath comfortable and easy.
Breathe on your own flow, to your own timing, for as long as you are comfortable. Pranayama nicely leads into Meditation. Enjoy for as long as you are comfortable. If you keep doing this, your comfort level will expand and expand.
Feelings Live In Your Body
What We Do With Our Body Effects Our Feelings. Sandra at 72 years young.
“Every muscular contraction contains the history and meaning of its origin.” Wilhelm Reich
Whether you realize it or not, you THINK with your mind, you FEEL with your body and you KNOW from the depth of your being. To test this out, focus on a troubling situation and then ask yourself, “What do I THINK about this? What do I FEEL and what do I KNOW for sure?” You receive three different answers!
Your feelings reveal more about you than your conscious thinking mind.
And, what you KNOW, well you just KNOW! You don’t KNOW how you KNOW—you just KNOW.
“Our emotions are in our body,” scientist Candace Pert told Bill Moyer in the television series, Healing and The Mind. Looking shocked, Bill Moyer repeated, “In our body?” “Yes,” said Candace, “In our body. They (emotions) are neuropeptides that reside at the cellular level, in our tissues.”
Yoga increases our ability to access FEELINGS. Otherwise they get lost in overwrought everyday thinking.
YogaFictionYogaTruth.com
Photo by Mairen Kops
Who are you?
Frustration & Anger release from our shoulders.
Yoga changes your body. It also changes your life.
While Asanas (Yoga positions) strengthen and balance your body they connect you to emotions,insights and inspirational flashes. You find out what REALLY bothers you; where it comes from; what you feel about it and how YOU can make it better.
Yoga provides the answers. Exploring deep within muscles, joints and tissues, while practicing Asanas, feelings, needs and desires rise up to the surface.
Sensing inwardly, you feel your anger, joy, depression and grief. Also, you find out what you need to change; if you are healthy or on the verge of exhaustion and, if so, why.
Focusing only on the physical aspects, you easily bypass what your body is struggling to tell you. Important pieces that can light your way get shoved down, out of sight and lost, except for the pain and erratic behaviour they cause in your life.
Excerpt from Sandra’s book, Yoga Fiction Yoga Truth: http://bit.ly/1pl3oEO
Photo by Mairen Kops Sandra 72 years young.
Yoga Answers The Question, “What Would I Do If I Wasn’t Scared?”
Photo by Mairen Kops. Sandra at 71 years young.
To find out what you would do if you weren’t scared practice Yoga. Yoga puts you in touch with your authentic true self by streaming Prana—the energy medicine of Yoga—through your body.
Prana cleanses out negative conditioning by burrowing deeper and deeper into our bodies to dissolve underlying emotional blockages and physical ailments built up through destructive images, cellular memories and belief systems.
As these patterns dissolve we know more about ourselves and come to understand what holds us back, what we need to do about it and how to go about doing it.
Yoga gives us the strength to act on these deeper insights in our DAILY LIVES— strengthening the weaker areas of our personalities.
This sends us on an on-going adventure of self-discovery and growth fueled by the mindfulness that arises out of our Yoga practice—in spite of the inevitable setbacks and limitations. That’s what makes it exciting!
Excerpt from Sandra’s book: http://bit.ly/1pl3oEO
Photo by Mairen Kops Sandra 72 years young.
Remember Shoulderstand
Photo by Tangi Bell. Sandra 72 years young.
Shoulderstand is such an important Asana.
It brings relaxation to the whole body but especially to our skull. It takes wrinkles out of our face and makes us look beautiful, no matter our age!
Make sure your head is soft in the Shoulderstand and that it moves easily from side to side.
Remember the weight us is on your elbows and the base of your skull.
More on the Shoulderstand to come…..
Yoga Relaxes Our Bodies, Therefore Our Minds Are Focused
Yoga removes stress from of our bodies and our minds are more RELAXED, LOOSE and FREE.
Sandra at 70 years young.LOOSE and FREE.
A FREE mind finds it is easier to FOCUS because the ‘rascal” mind that drives us crazy is quiet, making more room for the unconscious mind and inspirational awareness to catch our attention so they can INFORM and GUIDE us.
Instead of living from habitual responses—that know the least! —Yoga provides access to the other 90% of our mind that for most of us is clearly underdeveloped. Expanding our awareness, we KNOW more about what is happening and has happened to us in our daily lives.
By increasing self-awareness Yoga guides, nurtures and heals our in-depth wounds and calms those daily irritations. This leads to Samadhi (peaceful mind) because to attain peace we need to KNOW and UNDERSTAND our world AS IT IS.
Since our mind are OUT of their’ conditioned cage—at least some of the time—we are also more CREATIVE. The mind can WANDER, IMAGINE and marvel at what is. This, paradoxically, keeps us CURIOUS, AWAKE and FOCUSED, where ever we find ourselves to be.
Excerpt from Sandra’s book: http://bit.ly/1pl3oEO
Photo by Catherine Dawn Sandra 72 years young.